Sportsman, hunters, photographers and other wilderness and wild life enthusiasts, in order to hunt or observe indigenous wildlife, often must remain relatively motionless for extended periods of time while waiting for game to appear, especially where there is no ready means of concealment, and the relative immobility serves as the only form of concealment available. It can be extremely uncomfortable and tiring for the hunter or the like to stand still for an extended period, and equally uncomfortable to sit or lie on damp or cold ground. As a consequence, various types of tree seats have been employed by hunters to alleviate, at least to some extent, the discomfort and fatigue.
Tree seats for use by hunters generally comprise a platform which may support a cushion and a person seated thereon, and which is attached to a tree trunk to hold the seat in place in its operative position and configuration. The means by which the seat or platform is attached to the tree trunk generally consists of a length of chain, cable, or rope, which is attached to the platform and is wrapped around the tree trunk. Examples of each arrangements are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,855,980 of Konieczka, 3,368,725 of Martin, 3,513,940 of Ussery, 3,730,294 of Thurmond and 4,120,379 of Carter.
It is almost always the case that the desired location for the hunter to take station is sufficiently far from civilization or any roads to require considerable walking or hiking to get to it. As can be seen in most of the foregoing patents, the tree seats shown therein are somewhat cumbersome and awkward to carry, but if they are to be of any use, they must be carried by the hiker, i.e. hunter, to the desired location. Of the aforementioned patents, that of Thurmond suggests utilizing the tree seat structure itself as a back pack of sorts, while the Martin patent suggests the use of a back pack frame as a tree seat of sorts. Thus, with both the Martin and the Thurmond arrangements, the tree seat of Thurmond and the back pack of Martin perform a useful function while being transported to the desired site, and also after the desired site is reached, while most prior art tree seats must be transported to the desired site before they can perform any useful function.
Although both the Thurmond and Martin devices perform dual functions, the Thurmond device is barely adequate as a back pack, while the Martin device is barely adequate as a tree seat. In both devices, a chain is used to attach the tree seat to the tree, which, inasmuch as a chain of sufficient size and length is both heavy and cumbersome, adds materially to the weight that must be carried to the site. In addition, the mode of attachment of these devices to the tree does not allow for ready adjustment of the height of the seat above the ground.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,858 of Babb there is shown a tree seat which does permit height adjustment, but which is otherwise cumbersome to transport, and which does not function as anything other than a tree seat, for example, as a back pack.